Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-09-04
THU OYSTER.
Some Facts About an Esteemed and Popular
Visitor,
4 LATE ARRIVAL FROM BALTIMORE.
Thoughts Suggested by His Recent Advent in
the City.
WHO AND WHAT he CLAIMS TO BIZ.

Although we have had oysters with US
all through the summer, what is known
among dealers in the lucious bivalve
copyrighted as the Baltimore brand
did not open up until Friday last,
on the evening Of which day the first ship
ment of prospective frys and stews arrived
in the city via the B. & o. road. The sum-
mer oyster comes from New York, but with
the advent of September the Baltimore oys-
ter comes to the surface, they being by far
the best favored and generally much larger
in size. The first shipment was an unusu-
ally large one, the recent series Of
cool days and cooler nights creating q
decided demand. Wholesale dealers who
usually order but four or six tubs Of bulk
oysters day for starter, took dozen or
eighteen tubs on Friday, and twice as many
yesterday, while retailers increased their
orders correspondingly. One restaurant
man, who was interviewed by REGISTER
representative, said the demand from his
customers was unprecedented. He said:
1T seems as though everybody who
comes in clamors for oysters. Last year a
gallon a day did me easily through Sep
TENDER. To day / have sold over ten gal
Ions, and the rush is as lively as ever"
This experience was also reported by
others, and there is no doubt, if the merucry
remains reasonably low, the trade will
reach proportions never before achieved in
Wheeling.
The opening Of the oyster season Jug
gests number of things to the observant
newspaper man. The oyster marks dis:
tinct period in each feeting year. His
coming sounds the knell of the straw hat.
the summer girl, the cucumber, the ice
man, and a variety of other things. 1t tells
of the near approach of those melancholy
days" poets who don't like oysters are ac-
customed to rave about 1t brings the
newspaper mans family home from the
fashionable watering place; and tells the
housewife the season is nigh when she
must see to getting in the win
ter's supply of coal. 1t brings us once
more to the era Of natural gas bills, and
last winters oyercoats, and autumn styles
of bonnets, and so on. 1t arouses new
trains of thought. For instance, did it
ever occur to you, gentle reader, that the
opening of the theatrical season and the
oyster shell are synonymous? [Synony-
nous isn't exactly the word, come to think
of it; but it's large and will do. Did you
ever reflect that oyster and opera begin
with the same letter, and can properly be
partaken Of on the same evening? Did you
ever ponder over the great truth that tie
oyster and the mosquito go hand in hand,
as it were, through the glorious
autumn months of each re-
curing year? There is no extra
charges for these solid chunks of iniorma-
ton. They are flung in in an easy, off hand
ed way, in the hope that they may give rise
to fugitive reflection in the large, soft and
blase brain of some IntelEgencer subscriber,
who may perchance borrow copy of this
paper Of his progressive neighbor..
Webster defines the oyster as mol
lusk of the genus ostrea, having bivalve
shell, usually found on gravel or sand, or
adhering to rocks or other fixed substances
in salt water which is shallow, or in the
mouths of rivers" Webster may be cor
rect, but in this city they are found more
plentiful in the mouths of men than rivers
some young ladies, too, like to fish around
for them in shallow salt water, with lit
tie pepper sauce and spoon. 1t is the
man here who has to 'shell out the rocks"
or other fixed substances" in order to
afford the fair maid an opportunity of in
dulging in the sport Of hemming a frisky
bivalve up in a three-cornered dish and
piercing It's carcass with a silver toed
fork.
Yes, the oyster season is at hand, and as
many unsophisticated people are likely to
eat oysters between now and next May, it
Is well to state further that, according te
the American Encyclopedia, this insect is
"a marine acephalous mollusk OF the lam
order and genus ostrea.
(Linn.)" 1t is well that this should be
quoted, as it can be used by impe3unious
young men whose sweethearts clamor for
oysters. If you are poor and struggling, II
each quarter that you dissipate drags up
by the roots large bunch of heart-stIings,
remind your girl Of the aforementioned
fact when next you t, ain me-
ander by an oyster repository. Bend lew
and whisper in her pink-edged ear that by
most writers oysters have been considered
but that, according to
Siebold and others they are Of separate
sexes, though the females vastly prepon-
derate, and are ovoviviparous Ask her il
she has the heart to eat anything that is
ovoviviparous and doesn't know any bet
ter.
1t cannot be denied that the oyster be-
longs to an old and highly respected fam
lily. In fact, if there is anything in anti
guilty Of lineage the oyster is far superior to
hsny who eat him. The family ostreadae
from which the oyster is descended is
very ancient one, though it iudiciously re-
trains from putting on airs as do the
Knickerbockers and the F. F. VS.. More
than 200 species of fossil oysters from the
time Of the Ammonites TO the present
epoch are known. Fossil oysters are not
80 popular now as the other kind, though
they are still served in some restaurants.
There are about sixty styles Of
oysters now in circulation. The
most popular editions are the
yirginian oyster, ostrea Virginia, and the
Northern oyster, ostres borealis. Other
are the placuna, like the palcuna
sella, or Hungarian saddle, and the plscuna
placenta OF the Chinessseas, SO tran sparent
"a to be used for window glass. Then
there are the pecten or scollop shell, and
the spondylus or thorny oyster. The pearl
oyster is the avicula margaritifera, belong
ing to another family. The scientists neg
lect to mention the l5-cent stewed oyster,
which forms q genus all by itself. This
oyster liz carnivorous and amphibious, and
when treated kindly, 1t will, after boiling,
come and eat crackers out Of ones hand.
The oyster season lasts eight months,
to Hoyle, but as we remarked at
the outset, on the authority of such men
Is Charles yaakeuren and Martin Thorn
ton, there is small demand in the straw
berry and Toe cream days of June and
July, when the New York Counts-so
salled because they are counted before
shipment, and bot because they belong to
the nobility-are the only oysters avail
s5le. Now, however, that the Baltimore
species ison deck the count il of completely
10 account, and will be rarely recognized